New Russian Command

Waikato Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1742, 20 April 1916, Page 3

New Russian Command

The new Conimander-iii-Chief of the Russian south-western armies, General Brusiloff, played an important part in the victorious Russian campaign in Galicia during the first six months of the war, and the army under his command covered itself with glory during the great retreat. After the fall of Lemberg, on June 22nd, 1915, most of the weight of the enemy's attacks fell upon the forces under him. It was he who had done most of the work in capturing Lemberg in September, 1914,and it was his troops that stormed the rampart of the Carpathians and invaded the Hungarian plain. Even when he had been compelled to retire from the mountain line to the Dneister front he had trapped Linsengen’s army and put at least half of the effectives out of action. His last great victory at Suravuo had been achieved just after the loss of Przemysl by Ivanoff’s troops early in June, 1915. Few of the enemy troops that crossed the Dneister returned to their main armies, and by the middle of June the German Army under Linsingeu was exhausted. General Brusiloff always contrived to make his decisive attacks when the enemy troops faced him, with their backs to the river and with only a few pontoon bridges behind them when they retreated. It was by these annihilating tactics that he had wrecked Linsingen ’s army so completely that Linsingen’s name disappeared from both the German and Austrian communiques. The strength of his army and the genius of General Brusiloff shattered the forces brought against him, and became the pivot on which all the other Russian forces swung in their long movement of retirement